Cathie from Canada

"Do not go gentle into that good night.
Blog, blog against the dying of the light"

Friday, July 30, 2004

Reactions and reviews

Well, Google News lists more than 2,000 stories so far about The Speech, and many (not all) bloggers were pretty happy about it.
Anyway, one further thought -- given how poorly the TV network pundits handled the little bit of the convention they did cover, maybe everyone should quit complaining about how they did only three hours. Better that people should read about it in the newspapers than watch these guys.
In terms of the cable coverage, overall CNN did OK - some of their panels were strange, and Wolfie and Jeff Greenfield spend the convention reading from the RNC talking points (though I didn't watch everything they did) -- but Aron Brown (Newsnight) and Larry King did thoughtful work covering the substance of what was being said, and King had some terrific panels plus Moe Rocca. MSNBC - specifically Chris Matthews -- was more prone to repeating gossip and, from beginning to end, was absolutely obsessed with the convention management (as if anyone other than the media control booth directors actually cared about the time deadlines for the speeches). But their panelists did occasionally make good points, too.
Best blogger for the convention -- Liberal Oasis. Used the opportunity to talk to people from all over, and post their interviews, plus covered the convention events. I also really liked Buzzflash's thoughtful blog posts, and Pandragon too.